Fisheries Information Platform

Tutorial

This tutorial was designed to give new users a quick introduction to the Fisheries Information Platform. The tutorial is arranged into five sections, each tackling the different components and tools available in the FIP. You can select the section you want to view although we recommend for you to work on the sections sequentially. It takes about 15 minutes to go through the entire tutorial.

We first discuss briefly the datasets used in the platform. Section 1 of the tutorial focuses on the general configuration of the FIP, and then we dive into the details. Section 2 explains the main menu, and concepts such as adding layers, turning layers on and off and layer ordering. Section 3 explains how to search along the map. Section 4 discusses how to use the toolbar to print your map, import layers and perform measurements. Finally, Section 5 dives into how to use the GIS toolbar. Here you will find novel tools to extract quantitative information out of the platform.

The FIP was developed using MapStore, an open source WebGIS framework developed to create, manage and share maps. If you are familiar with MapStore, you can surely skip most of this tutorial, just have a look at Section 5 for information on some special tools that were created specifically for this project.

Datasets

The FIP includes fisheries data for the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) Fisheries Management area, which covers the entire US EEZ from the Atlantic Mexico border up to the Florida Keys. The Platform contains non-confidential data of fishing landings and revenues for shrimp, reef fish, highly migratory species and recreational headboat fisheries in the GoM. Details of the fisheries datasets can be found following this link. Additional datasets have been included to provide context to the fisheries data, including marine jurisdictions, oil and gas pipelines and structures, shipping and navigation routes, areas with spatial management and sea surface temperature.

Section 1. General Configuration

The default map view displays several basic features. (1) The Main menu is on the left, where an expandable window has information on the map layers. (2) The Search bar on the top allows you to search within the map. (3) On the top right you have a Toolbar with a series ofspecialized tools. (4) On the bottom right you have a bar with GIS tools to navigate the map and extract information. We will go through these in detail below, but getting around the FIP is easy: you’ll have pointers letting you know what each tool does if you hover (move the mouse) over the relevant icon.

Section 2. Main Menu

Click on the Layers icon to expand the window and access the main menu. The default layers will be visible.

2.1. Changing visible layers
You can Toggle the visibility of the group of layers or Toggle the visibility of individual layers by clicking on the eye icon. If you would rather change the order of the layers to make the layer(s) of interest more prominent you can Grab and sort the layer or the group: just click on the three lines and drag the item up or down the list to its desired position. For each layer, you can Adjust the transparency by sliding the bar left or right so multiple layers will be visible on top of each other. Finally, if you click on the chevron, you’ll be able to Display the legend for that layer.

2.2. Exploring layers
You can explore all layers contained in the FIP by scrolling through the window. Currently (as June 2024) the platform’s data main categories are: Reef fish fisheries, Shrimp fisheries, Pelagic fisheries, Other fisheries, and Other data. Each category comes with an associated group of layers. You can Open a group of layers to see their content by clicking on the folder icon. Alternatively, you can Close a group by clicking on the open folder icon. Finally, you can search all the layers by using the Filter layers box. For example, searching by “Florida” will list all layers depicting data for Florida for the entire dataset.

Section 3. Search bar

The search bar allows you to find a site of interest in the map, either by specifying an address (towns, streets, or post codes) or coordinates in decimal degrees. The default is to query by address. The FIP will autocomplete your text if you’re typing a street address and then zoom into that location. If you want to search by coordinate instead, click on Change the search tool and you’ll be able to search by coordinates instead using decimal degrees. Remember you can always go back to a larger extent by using the GIS toolbar.

Section 4. Toolbar

The toolbar contains some basic tools, such as the ability to Print the current map, Import a map file or vector data to add to your map and Measure features in the map.

4.1. Printing your map
You can print the current view for later use. Simply enter a Title and a Description of your map and indicate what file Format you need. You can choose between PDF, PNG or JPEG. Rotate the map if it makes more sense to have it at an angle for interpretation. You can also decide on the Layout of the map: what Size of Sheet you’re printing off, if you want to include the Legend, and if you would like the sheet to be printed on Landscape (horizontal) or Portrait (vertical) format. For maps encompassing the entire Gulf of Mexico, landscape is better. You can also decide on the output Resolution of the map (the larger the value the more detail but also the larger the output file). Click Print. You can zoom in and out of the final map to see the details. If you would like some changes, go back. If you are happy with how it looks, click the download button, the one with the down arrow.

4.2. Import vector data
You can import your own vector data into the map for visualization and analysis. This tool supports the vector formats Shapefiles, KML, KMZ or GeoJSON. If you have a Shapefile you need to first compress all files within a zip folder. Simply select the file you want to upload or drop it into the window. The new data will appear on the main menu, under the group “Default” at the very top. You can customize the new feature by selecting the color of the stroke and its width, as well as the color of the fill. If you click Finish, then your feature will appear, and the view will automatically zoom into that feature in the map unless you unclick Zoom on the vector files. The new feature will appear at the top of the Main menu inside the group “Default”.

4.3. Performing measurements
You can measure distance, area and bearing on the map using different measurement units. To measure a distance, click on the distance icon and then click on the map to draw the beginning of your line and the nodes between sequential lines. If you double click you’ll finish your line drawing. You’ll be able to see both the measurements of each segment and the total length of your line in the selected units. To measure an area the procedure is similar: click on the map to draw the vertices of your polygon, and double click to end your drawing. Bearing measurements are more unusual, they allow you to measure angles in degrees. To calculate a bearing, first click on the map to define a starting point and then click again to draw the end point. Bearings are written as a meridian, an angle and a direction. For example, a bearing of S 60 W defines an angle of 60 degrees West measured from South.

After you are done you can clear all your measurements from the map or export them in GeoJSON format to add them to the FIP later or used them in another application.

Section 5. GIS toolbar

The GIS toolbar contains several tools to allow you to interact with the map. You can Zoom in and Zoom out of the map. If you’re not happy with the new extent, you can Zoom to the map extent to go back to the initial view.

This toolbar also offers the most exciting capabilities of the FIP, such as the ability to produce queries and quantitative reports.

5.1. Querying objects in the map: Fisheries data on land
You can also click over any GoM county with associated fisheries data (outlined in blue). The fishing territory for the reef fishery will appear in blue, and for the shrimp fishery in red. These layers may be better viewed with no layers on the background. If you click on the county again the territories will disappear from the map.

5.2. Querying objects in the map: Fisheries data at sea
This tool allows you to extract quantitative information from the FIP by clicking on sea and getting information on fisheries landings and revenues accrued in that cell. After clicking in your area of interest, a box will open showing the associated information for all fisheries. You can download the information as a csv file if you would want to keep it.

5.3 Generating reports for an area
As you did before when measuring areas (section 4.3), you can create an area of interest by clicking on the map and closing the polygon with a double click. This will generate a report with all the landings and revenues accrued by that region. You can download the information as a csv file if you would want to keep it.